10. National Library Expanded

The second phase of the construction project of the National Library of China (NLC), a new library, was opened to the public on September 9. Covering an area of 80,538 square meters, the new library can sit 2,900 readers and accept 8,000 visitors a day. The new addition makes the total construction area of the NLC 250,000 square meters, ranking third in the world. Designed by a German architectural firm, the modern library is the largest collection base for Chinese documents in the world.

On the same day, the National Digital Library also started to accept visitors. As the first library of its kind, the digital library provides the most advanced information network service to world readers. Up to June, the storage capacity of digital resources in the library was 200 terabyte.